An anonymous reader writes: Many this week have declared Israel's American financed Iron Dome rocket defense system a success. Some have even gone so far to declare it a vindication of Ronald Reagen's 1980's Star Wars missile defense system. Pundits have even gone so far to assume the system could be sold to other nations. However, the Iron Dome may not be the game changer many are making it out to be.

Taking out unsophisticated rockets is quite different than advanced missiles: "...the technical and strategic challenges of shooting down ballistic missiles differ considerably from those of shooting down unguided rockets. BMD shares with rocket defense some common technological ground; both require fast reaction time and impressive sensor capabilities, and the Iron Dome project has benefited from technical work on missile defense. However, ballistic missiles in flight behave differently from unguided, sub-atmospheric rockets."

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Ballistic missiles ARE unguided rockets, by definition . Somebody needs to open up their dictionary and read the entry on "ballistic." Also, "sub-atmospheric?" Are these magical tunneling missiles? Perhaps Bert Gummer has figured out how to attach warheads and guidance systems to the worms? Two thumbs down for a story written to use science to make a point, while not actually using science.